Tips on How to Stop Shanking

Golf can be frustrating as it is, trying to stop shanking doesn’t help out either. When the ball hits the inside corner of the heel it causes the ball to ricochet off your line of play, to the left for lefties and to the right for righties.

 

Position

Your stance and distance has a lot to do with whether you are going too shank that shot or not. Obviously standing too close to the ball will cause you (more than likely) to hit off the heel of the club. Standing too far can cause you to have bad posture, which can lead to a shanked hit.

 

Swing Path

Having the proper swing path can help prevent shanking the ball. Coming over the top of the ball makes a swing come from the outside to the inside of the swing path. When this happens, there is a better chance that the hosel (the part where the clubface attaches to the shaft) will more than likely come in contact first due to over-compensation. One way to prevent coming over the top is to inch back a little so that you make contact at the proper angle.

 

Your Grip

Not talking whether you use an overlapping, interlocking or ten-finger grip. The amount of pressure applied is what is important. Gripping too tight can give you an awkward swing. Too loose can cause the club to rotate in your hand and can cause to club to rotate towards the inside.

 

If you are not sure about what exactly is causing you to shank the ball, take a video of yourself to watch your approach, posture, swing path, etc. If you have a good golfing buddy have him take a look after a couple of hits and ask him his opinion. Worse comes to worse, you can always ask the club pro to take a look and see what he has to say about it. We hope this can give you some insight as to why you may be shanking the ball. Good luck out there and remember, practice, practice and more practice. Like we say the driving range is there for a reason.